June 28, 2007 5:28 AM PDT
Red Hat discussed patents with Microsoft...this is news?
Reuters is reporting that Red Hat held patent talks with Microsoft but they broke down. This is news? I've been hinting at this for many moons.
But it's not rocket science to infer that Microsoft would have approached Red Hat long before it knocked on the doors of Novell, Xandros, and Linspire. Microsoft said as much when it signed the deal with Novell, and has pined in the press for a deal with Red Hat, only to be publicly rejected.
Is there any scenario under which Red Hat will enter into a patent agreement with Microsoft? I'm sure there is. But not under the terms Microsoft has been suggesting.
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure. You can follow Matt on Twitter @mjasay. 
